Maximilian was born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, January 8, 1894. At age twelve and around the time of his first Communion, he received a vision of the Virgin Mary that changed his life.

"I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both."-Saint Maximilian

In 1910, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order. Whilestill in the seminary, he and six friends founded the Immaculata Movement (Militia Immaculatae, Crusade of Mary Immaculate) devoted to the conversion of sinners, opposition to freemasonry , spread of the Miraculous Medal (which they wore as their habit), and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the path to Christ. He was sent to study in Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1918.

Father Kolbe returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration, which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelization center near Warsaw called Niepokalanow, the "City of the Immaculata." By 1939, the City had expanded from 18 friars to 650, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world.

In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life to spare another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "martyr of charity" in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is considered a patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted.

I rejoice greatly, dear brother, at the outstanding zeal that drives you to promote the glory of God. It is sad to see how in our times the disease called indifferentism is spreading in all its forms, not just among those in the world but also among the members of religious orders. But indeed, since God is worthy of infinite glory, it is our first and most pressing duty to give him such glory as we, in our weakness, can manage  even that we would never, poor exiled creatures that we are, be able to render him such glory as he truly deserves.

Because Gods glory shines through most brightly in the salvation of the souls that Christ redeemed with his own blood, let it be the chief concern of the apostolic life to bring salvation and an increase in holiness to as many souls as possible. Let me briefly outline the best way to achieve this end  both for the glory of God and for the sanctification of the greatest number. God, who is infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom, knows perfectly what is to be done to give him glory, and in the clearest way possible makes his will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth.

It is obedience and obedience alone that shows us Gods will with certainty. Of course our superiors may err, but it cannot happen that we, holding fast to our obedience, should be led into error by this. There is only one exception: if the superior commands something that would obviously involve breaking Gods law, however slightly. In that case the superior could not be acting as a faithful interpreter of Gods will.

God himself is the one infinite, wise, holy, and merciful Lord, our Creator and our Father, the beginning and the end, wisdom, power, and love  God is all these. Anything that is apart from God has value only in so far as it is brought back to him, the Founder of all things, the Redeemer of mankind, the final end of all creation. Thus he himself makes his holy will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth and draws us to himself, and through us  for so he has willed  draws other souls too, and unites them to himself with an ever more perfect love.

See then, brother, the tremendous honour of the position that God in his kindness has placed us in. Through obedience we transcend our own limitations and align ourselves with Gods will, which, with infinite wisdom and prudence, guides us to do what is best. Moreover, as we become filled with the divine will, which no created thing can resist, so we become stronger than all others.

This is the path of wisdom and prudence, this is the one way by which we can come to give God the highest glory. After all, if there had been another, better way, Christ would certainly have shown it to us, by word and by example. But in fact sacred Scripture wraps up his entire long life in Nazareth with the words and he was obedient to them and it shows the rest of his life to have been passed in similar obedience  almost as an instruction to us  by showing how he came down to Earth to do the Fathers will.

Brethren, let us love him above all, our most loving heavenly Father, and let our obedience be a sign of this perfect love, especially when we have to sacrifice our own wills in the process. And as for a book from which to learn how to grow in the love of God, there is no better book than Jesus Christ crucified.

All this we will achieve more easily through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin, to whom the most kind God has given the task of dispensing his mercies. There is no doubt that the will of Mary should be the will of God for us. When we dedicate ourselves to him, we become tools in her hands just as she became a tool in his. Let us let her direct us and lead us by the hand. Let us be calm and serene under her guidance: she will foresee all things for us, provide all things, swiftly fulfil our needs both bodily and spiritual, and keep away from us all difficulty and suffering.

He was a very humble man and like many war veterans, never dwelt on the horrors he saw and sacrifices he made, but spoke glowingly of the inspiration of Fr. Kolbe. Seeing his ID tattoo and the "1000 mile stare" and knowing the horrors of the death camps left an indelible impression on me.

The one message he gave was that when confronting evil faith alone was not enough, but that we are called to act upon our faith in His name.

Our Pastor’s Patron Saint is St. Maximilian Kolbe, and he visited his cell in Auschwitz twice. He spent quite a lot of time this morning talking about his visit to Auschwitz, and St. Kolbe. He has a relic, 3 hairs, that he brought to Mass this morning. After Mass we all kissed the relic. Quite an emotional morning.

I often wonder how those who believe that Sola Fide or Faith Alone, which at a superficial or academic level makes some sense, conclude that it somehow absolves us of the responsibility of confronting evil in real life.

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